Digital UNIX (DEC OSF/1) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about the Digital UNIX (formerly DEC OSF/1) operating system from Digital Equipment Corporation. Also included is information common to Digital UNIX and the RISC ULTRIX operating system.

Archive-name: dec-faq/Digital-UNIX
Posting-Frequency: bi-monthly
Last-modified: November 16, 1998
Changes since last edition
==========================
Add M18 about dxaccount saying the password and group files are locked.
Overview
========
This is the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) collection for the Digital UNIX
(formerly DEC OSF/1 AXP) operating system and, to some degree, the systems
on which it runs. Some information relevant to the RISC ULTRIX operating
systems (for the DECstation systems based on MIPS processor chips) can also
be found here, though there is a separate FAQ specifically for RISC ULTRIX.
This FAQ is archived in the following locations:
comp.answers and news.answers newsgroups
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/dec-faq/Digital-UNIXftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/dec-faq/Digital-UNIXhttp://www.supelec.fr/decus/faq/faq-Digital-UNIX.html
CompuServe VAXFORUM, Library 9, UNIXFAQ.TXT
A version translated into Japanese is at:
http://www.dec-j.co.jp/ic/unix/technical/j-faq.txt
To make suggestions for changes or additions to this Frequently Asked
Questions list, send mail to Steve.Lionel@digital.com. Answers are
especially appreciated. Please do NOT send technical questions to the
editor - post them to an appropriate newsgroup instead.
Some general notes:
The term "Alpha" generally refers to systems based on Digital's Alpha
processor.
Unless otherwise specified, these answers refer to Digital UNIX 4.0, which is
the current release. "Digital UNIX" is used even for earlier versions which
call themselves DEC OSF/1.
World-Wide Web Universal Resource Locator (URL) notation is used for FTP
addresses.
Many people have contributed to this list, directly or indirectly. In
some cases, an answer has been adapted from one or more postings on the
comp.unix.ultrix or comp.unix.osf.osf1 newsgroups. Our thanks to all of
those who post answers. The name (or names) at the end of an entry indicate that
the information was taken from postings by those individuals; the text may have
been edited for this FAQ. These citations are only given to acknowledge the
contribution.
Although the editor of this FAQ is an employee of Digital Equipment
Corporation, this posting is not an official statement from Digital
Equipment Corporation.
AlphaGeneration, AlphaServer, AlphaStation, Alpha AXP, AXP, DEC, DECstation,
DECsystem, OpenVMS, ULTRIX, VAX and VMS are trademarks of Digital Equipment
Corporation. OSF/1 is a registered trademark of the Open Software Foundation.
UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries,
licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd. Other names are properties of
their respective owners.
Alpha
======================================================
A1. Where can I find software that has been ported to Digital UNIX?
A2. What does the "AXP" in "Alpha AXP" mean?
A3. Where can I get Emacs and Epoch for Digital UNIX?
A4. Where can I get technical information about Alpha?
A5. What online documentation is there for DIGITAL UNIX?
A6. Where can I get updated console firmware for AlphaServer systems?
Software
======================================================
S1. What (free) tools are there for looking at system behavior?
S2. How can I figure out what files translated binaries are
looking for?
S3. Where can I get an alternative PostScript previewer?
S4. Where can I get a T-shell (tcsh)?
S5. How can I use audio on AlphaStations and DECstations?
S6. How do I play music CDs on CD-ROM drives?
S7. Can I run binaries from RISC/ULTRIX on a Digital UNIX system?
S8. Where are patches/updates for DIGITAL UNIX available from?
Programming
======================================================
P1. What tools will help me port software to Digital UNIX?
P2. Why can't I run dbx?
P3. Why do my applications not work after I upgrade to a new version of
Digital UNIX?
P4. Where can I get a debugging malloc that works on Digital UNIX?
P5. What's with 'ld: unresolved symbols: dnet_conn'?
P6. How can I tell what program generated a core file?
P7. What does "unaligned access" mean, and how can I fix it?
P8. What about "unaligned access" in FORTRAN programs?
P9. How can I get microsecond resolution from gettimeofday(2)?
Graphics
======================================================
G1. How can I make the graphics go faster?
G2. Where can I get an xv that works on Digital UNIX?
G3. How do I get an xdm session as root?
G4. How do I allow xdm sessions at C2 security?
Network
======================================================
N1. Why doesn't FTP work to an XYZ system?
N2. How do you use a NFS-mounted /usr filesystem on Digital UNIX?
N3. Where can I get rstatd for Digital UNIX?
N4. How do I switch between the AUI and 10 Base-T Ethernet ports?
N5. Where can I get multicast software for Digital UNIX?
N6. What's wrong with xdr_long in the Digital UNIX XDR routines?
N7. How do I configure the Berkeley Packet Filter and capture tcpdump traces?
Hardware
======================================================
H1. Where can I get information about Alpha chips?
H2. How can I get a parallel printer to work?
H3. Where can I get a printcap entry for the XXX printer?
H4. What are the pinouts of the MMJ jacks?
H5. Where can I get a disktab entry for the XXX disk?
H6. How can I read/write MS-DOS floppy disks?
H7. How can I get disktab information for a new disk?
Miscellaneous
======================================================
M1. Where else is Digital UNIX discussed?
M2. How do I add a new terminal definition?
M3. How do I boot to single-user mode?
M4. I heard that OSF is dropping OSF/1. What does that mean for Digital UNIX?
M5. How can I read VMS BACKUP tapes on a UNIX machine?
M6. How do I contact Digital Customer Relations?
M7. How do I get an ESC (escape) character on a DEC keyboard?
M8. Where can I read announcements from Digital?
M9. Where can I get performance information about Digital products?
M10. How do I report security problems to Digital?
M11. How do I deal with the swap file filling up?
M12. How do I deal with login problems?
M13. How do I figure out what version of Digital UNIX I have?
M14. Is there a Digital UNIX web site?
M15. How do I free disk space for an update installation?
M16. Why doesn't deleting individual system files free space for an update
installation?
M17. How do I tune my system for use as a web server?
M18. Why does dxaccounts tells me that the password and group files are locked?
==============================================
A1. Where can I find software that has been ported to Digital UNIX?
A list of free software known to be ported to Digital UNIX is available
on the World-Wide Web:
http://www.digital.com/info/software.html
A two-CD Freeware set shipped with Digital UNIX V4.0. For an online copy,
as well as reference to other freeware sources, see:
http://www.unix.digital.com/demos/index.html
To mount the (real) CD, use the command:
mount -r -t cdfs -o rrip /dev/rz?c /freeware
where ? == your SCSI CD-ROM ID (usually 4)
Digital actively maintains an "Alpha Applications Catalog" which lists
commercial software products available for Alpha systems.
http://www.partner.digital.com/www-catalog/
==============================================
A2. What does the "AXP" in "Alpha AXP" mean?
Nothing. It is part of the trademark. Digital is eliminating the use of
"AXP" in new product names.
==============================================
A3. Where can I get Emacs and Epoch for Digital UNIX?
Both a binary and sources for GNU Emacs are included on the base
system CD-ROM. Epoch is available on the Alpha OSF/1 Freeware CD-ROM
(see answer A1 for more information).
GNU emacs 19.29 compiles for Digital UNIX "out of the box"
[Pete Kaiser, kaiser@acm.org]
[Rob McCool, robm@snail.ncsa.uiuc.edu]
[Joern Wilms, wilms@rocinante.Colorado.EDU]
==============================================
A4. Where can I get technical information about Alpha?
Sites, R.L., Ed., Alpha Architecture Reference Manual (2nd ed) (600 page book,
1995) from Digital Press (EY-T132E-DP) or Prentice-Hall , ISBN
1-55558-145-5).
Digital Press has published "Alpha Architecture and Implementations" (Dileep
Bhandarkar, author). The book provides a comprehensive description of all major
aspects of Alpha systems. The book includes an overview of the history of RISC
development in the computer industry and at Digital, the Alpha architecture, all
the major processor chips, and system implementations. The book also covers RISC
concepts, provides an overview of other RISC architectures, and descriptions of
the new SPARC, MIPS, PowerPC, and PA-RISC microprocessors introduced in 1995.
The book also discusses operating system porting issues, compiler techniques,
and binary translation. Available from Butterworth-Heinemann (1-800-366-BOOK).
Communications of the ACM, February 1993 issue (4 Alpha articles)
Digital Technical Journal, Vol 4., No. 4 (200 pages of Alpha articles,
including 4 above with fewer typos). Order info: dtj@crl.dec.com
(Available from ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/DECinfo/DTJ and
http://www.digital.com/info/DTJ/dtj.html)
Jim Montanaro "The Design of the Alpha 21064 CPU Chip" (42 minutes)
Dick Sites and Dirk Meyer, "Alpha Architecture" (73 minutes)
University Video Communications P.O. BOx 5129 Stanford CA 94309 USA
(415) 813-0506
[Dick Sites, sites@tallis.enet.dec.com]
==============================================
A5. What online documentation is there for DIGITAL UNIX?
The DIGITAL UNIX Publications group is pleased to announce that our DIGITAL
UNIX documentation is now available on the Internet from the DIGITAL UNIX
external web page. Go to:
http://www.UNIX.digital.com/faqs/publications/pub_page/pubs_page.html
The following documentation is available:
o DIGITAL UNIX V4.0B
o DIGITAL UNIX reference pages
o TruCluster Software V1.4
You will also find information on how to order our hardcopy books.
We welcome comments and suggestions; please send mail to
readers_comments@zk3.dec.com.
==============================================
A6. Where can I get updated console firmware for AlphaServer systems?
We are happy to announce the creation of an unrestricted FTP and WWW area for
Alphaservers. This area is accessible to both internal and external folks.
The information includes firmware updates, the latest configuration utilities,
software patches, a list of supported options, hardware documentation, and
more. The area is under construction, so not everything is in place yet.
The files available for FTP are located at:
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/Alpha/
The WWW pages are located at:
http://www.service.digital.com/alpha/server/
We hope that these pages will be useful. Please send your comments and
feedback to alpha_server@service.digital.com
==============================================
S1. What (free) tools are there for looking at system behavior?
syd, a utility like top, is on the Freeware disk for versions
of Digital UNIX before V3.0. It is also available for anonymous FTP from
many sites. One is ftp://ftp.Uni-Koeln.DE/decosf; and there you can also
get a version that works with version 3.x of Digital UNIX.
The latest official version of top (3.4) supports single cpu
Alphas running Digital UNIX 1.2, 1.3, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.2. It's at
ftp://eecs.nwu.edu/pub/top It does not support multi-cpu alphas,
because no-one with root access to a multi-cpu alpha has stepped forward
to do the work. When compiling, note the warning about compiling
with optimisation.
lsof, a utility for listing open files, is available from
ftp://vic.cc.purdue.edu/pub/tools/unix/lsof
In addition there is a program for listing locks on files that runs on
3.2 and 4.0 at least in: ftp://vic.cc.purdue.edu/pub/tools/unix/lslk
vmubc is a graphical and tty-based tool for displaying statistics
on CPU, UBC, and virtual memory. Note that to compile on OSF/1 2.x,
add -DGSI_CPUS_IN_BOX=55 to the CFLAGS. vmubc is available from
ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/Digital/vmubc.tar.Z It was written by
George Chaltas of DEC.
sys_check is a ksh script, that generates a HTML file of a Digital UNIX
configuration. It is supported on both V3.2C-G, and V4.0A-D systems. Sys_check
will be included in future DIGITAL UNIX Operating system releases.
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/IAS/sys_check/sys_check.html
[Dave Sill]
[Anthony Baxter]
[Chris Eleveld]
[Eric Schott]
==============================================
S2. How can I figure out what files translated binaries are
looking for?
Try
setenv MXR_TRACE_SYSCALLS open,stat,fstat,access
Running mxr -help will describe this environment variable along with
some other useful ones.
[Richard Gorton, gorton@blorf.amt.ako.dec.com]
==============================================
S3. Where can I get an alternative PostScript previewer?
The previewer psview is available from
http://www.ensmp.fr/~bourdonc
[Francois Bourdoncle, Francois.Bourdoncle@ensmp.fr]
==============================================
S4. Where can I get a T-shell (tcsh)?
The current version of tcsh is 6.07. Look for it at:
ftp://ftp.deshaw.com/pub/tcshftp://ftp.primate.wisc.edu/pub/csh-tcsh-book
==============================================
S5. How can I use audio on AlphaStations and DECstations?
There are a few options for playing audio on Alpha systems. Most
workstations come with 8-kHz mono audio I/O hardware that is enabled
by configuring the bba (base board audio) device in the kernel.
The Sound & Motion J300 a/v TURBOchannel option card also has audio
hardware that support programmable sample rates from 8kHz to 48kHz
stereo.
Two software packages are available to drive audio on Alpha systems:
MME implements a Microsoft-style API and comes bundled with OSF/1.
AF, developed at Digital's Cambridge Research Laboratory
runs on a wide range of platforms including DECstation, Alpha, Sun,
SGI, and HP. It is available in source form from
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/AF
[Lance Berc, berc@src.dec.com]
==============================================
S6. How do I play music CDs on CD-ROM drives?
Sources for xcd are included in /usr/examples/motif/xcd.
Another version of xcd is on the Freeware CD-ROM in both source and binary
form, but that version may have been superseded by the one distributed with
the operating system. Neither cdp nor xcd is supported by Digital.
Two other programs are Workman and xmcd, both of which can be found on
ftp.x.org. Of all these programs, xmcd seems to be the widest used and to
have the largest database of audio CD data.
[Anthony Baxter, anthony@aaii.oz.au]
[Peter Kaiser, kaiser@acm.org]
==============================================
S7. Can I run binaries from RISC/ULTRIX on a Digital UNIX system?
DECmigrate for Digital UNIX Systems was announced with all of the
Alpha AXP systems on November 10, 1992. For more information, look at
the announcement article for the UNIX community:
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/DECinfo/DECnews-UNIX/0117.txt
and the DECmigrate for Digital UNIX Software Product Description (SPD):
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/DECinfo/SPD/39-45-02.txt
[Russ Jones, rjones@pa.dec.com]
==============================================
S8. Where are patches/updates for DIGITAL UNIX available from?
http://www.service.digital.com/patches/ is the place to go for a searchable
database of available updates.
==============================================
P1. What tools will help me port software to Digital UNIX?
The Digital Porting Assistant (available for Digital UNIX 3.2, and shipped
as part of the developer's toolkit on Digital UNIX 4.0) is a graphical
environment which aids in the porting process. In addition to doing lint-like
checking of C and Fortran code, it also contains extensive on-line help
regarding developing software on Digital UNIX. Information about the Digital
Porting Assistant can be found on the web at:
http://www.digital.com/info/porting_assistant
The version of lint shipped with Digital UNIX has many checks to help
port software to Alpha. In particular, the -Q option is very useful.
See the manual page for more details.
There is also a document/book entitled:
Interoperability, OpenVMS and DEC OSF/1 Interoperability Guide. EC-N3399-43.
A company called Sector 7 deals with porting software from OpenVMS to Digital
UNIX.
http://www.sector7.com
A document entitled "SunOS to DEC OSF/1 Porting Guide" is available
from ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/DECinfo/document/EC-N0736-43.ps.Z
The -taso flag to cc will often help with making code work on the 64bit Alpha.
This causes addresses to be 32-bits and should be used only as a last resort.
FreePort Express is a binary translator (running on Alpha) which permits
you to convert your SunOS 4.1.x (same as Solaris 1.x) user executables
into Digital UNIX executables in minutes. FreePort Express runs under
Digital UNIX V3.0 or later, and is available FREE of charge (hence the name).
http://www.novalink.com/freeport-express
==============================================
P2. Why can't I run dbx?
The development environment is a separate layered product beyond the base OS.
Although it is included on the Digital UNIX consolidated CD-ROM, the license
must be purchased separately to use any portion of the Developer's kit. Within
the Digital UNIX Developer's Kit the license just happens to be enforced by a
check in dbx.
For more information, look in
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/DECinfo/DECnews-UNIX for:
0104.txt DEC OSF/1 Developer's Extensions V1.2 article, 11/17/92
0603.txt DEC OSF/1 Developer's Toolkit V1.2 article, 03/23/93
0806.txt C Compiler for DEC OSF/1 Operating System article, 05/13/93
[Russ Jones, rjones@pa.dec.com]
==============================================
P3. Why do my applications not work after I upgrade to a new version of
Digital UNIX?
Sometimes the details of the shared libraries change between releases.
In general, applications compiled on an earlier version of Digital UNIX
should still run on a later version. The converse may not be true.
The usual solution is to recompile from scratch.
[John Kohl, jtkohl@zk3.dec.com]
==============================================
P4. Where can I get a debugging malloc that works on Digital UNIX?
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/misc/malloc_dbg.
If you get the package, be sure to read the stuff in the file
contrib/dec_notes which explains how to replace malloc on the fly in
an existing program.
[Dave Hill, ddhill@zk3.dec.com]
The ATOM tools with Digital UNIX 3.0 and later also help with debugging memory
allocation problems.
[Anthony Baxter, anthony.baxter@aaii.oz.au]
Sentinel, from AIB Software Corporation is a run-time analysis tool that
supports memory access error detection as well as leak detection on Digital
UNIX. More info, as well as free evaluation copies, is available from
info@aib.com, or by calling 800-296-3000 (703-787-7700).
[Conor P. Cahill, cpcahil@aib.com]
==============================================
P5. What's with 'ld: unresolved symbols: dnet_conn'?
Some libraries on Digital UNIX (notably the X11 library) are compiled so that
they can use DECnet as well as TCP/IP. To link with such libraries,
include -ldnet_stub at the end of link command. If you have DECnet
software installed, use -ldnet.
==============================================
P6. How can I tell what program generated a core file?
1. Use the dbx debugger.
2. Use the "file" program (e.g., file <corefile>)
3. Use "strings" to find clues in the core file (e.g., strings <corefile>)
==============================================
P7. What does "unaligned access" mean, and how can I fix it?
Unaligned accesses typically come up when programs use malloc(3) or
other memory allocation routines in atypical ways, or when programs do
certain (hazardous) kinds of type casts.
malloc(3) returns data aligned to the most restrictive alignment (8
byte boundaries). If you are writing your own malloc wrapper (say to add a
reference count) and you write code like this:
char *mymalloc(int size)
{
short *newmem;
newmem = (short *) malloc(size + sizeof(short));
*newmem = 1; /* initialize reference count */
return (char *) (newmem + 1);
}
you are then returning a pointer that is no longer 8-byte aligned. Now, code
like
int *i;
i = (int *) mymalloc(sizeof(int));
*i = 10;
will generate unaligned access messages whenever *i is used.
An example of dangerous casting would be something like
char buffer[100];
int i;
i = (int)*((int *)&buffer[3]);
The program will usually still run correctly, because an exception
handler in the kernel performs an unaligned read. There are some rare
cases, however, where the fixed read yields incorrect results. The
messages are printed by default because one usually wants to know when
a program is generating the unaligned accesses.
Now, if you're only getting a few of these messages, it might not
matter, but if you're getting pages of them (or worse, have turned off
the logger because you were getting so many unaligned access
messages), you might consider correcting your program.
You can use the uac(1) (Unaligned Acces Message Control) command to
turn off the messages.
If you want to find the the problem in the source code, you can use dbx.
Suppose the message is:
Fixed up unaligned data access for pid 2337 (bozo) at pc 0x5ad364
This tells you that the problem occurs in the program "bozo". In dbx,
you would type, for example:
% dbx bozo
(dbx) 0x5ad364/i
*[main:206, 0x0x5ad364] lw r0,40(sp)
dbx prints the offending instruction, along with its location: line 206
in main().
==============================================
P8. What about "unaligned access" in FORTRAN programs?
This is most often caused by COMMON blocks in which variables are not
naturally aligned. For example:
REAL*4 X
REAL*8 Y
COMMON /CMN/ X,Y
Y will be at offset 4, which is not a multiple of its size (8). The best
solution is to rearrange variables in the COMMON so that real, complex
and integer variables are listed in order of decreasing size, followed by
CHARACTER variables. Put your declaration in an INCLUDE file to make sure
all uses are consistent! You can also ask the compiler to automatically
add padding to align variables through the -align dcommons switch, or
through a CDEC$ OPTIONS directive. See the DEC Fortran User Manual for
further details.
[Steve Lionel]
==============================================
P9. How can I get microsecond resolution from gettimeofday(2)?
Question: how does one get microsecond resolution from the
gettimeofday(2) system call?
Answer: Normally, Digital UNIX updates its internal idea of the
current time once per clock tick (1024 Hz, or about once per
millisecond). In Digital UNIX V4.0 and later, it is possible
to rebuild the kernel to support approximately microsecond
resolution from the gettimeofday(2) system call, and from the
various library routines that use this system call.
To enable this option, add the following line to the kernel
configuration file and rebuild the kernel:
options MICRO_TIME
The system clock (CLOCK_REALTIME) resolution as returned by
clock_getres(3) will not change. Timer resolution remains the same.
However, the granularity of the time returned by gettimeofday(2) and
clock_gettime(3) will now be in microseconds. The time values returned
are SMP safe and monotonically increasing.
The high-resolution clock can be used for timestamping and for
measuring durations on the order of microseconds, such as time spent in
some critical code path.
[Jeff Mogul]
==============================================
G1. How can I make the graphics go faster?
If your application is sending lots of data (using, say, PutImage
requests), try setting DISPLAY to local:0, which uses a shared memory
transport between the client and the X server.
[Gail Grant]
==============================================
G2. Where can I get an xv that works on Digital UNIX?
XV 3.10a supports Digital UNIX. It can be obtained from:
ftp://ftp.cis.upenn.edu/pub/xv
xv is also included on the Freeware CD-ROM (see question A1).
==============================================
G3. How do I get an xdm session as root?
Add the lines
host:0
host.sub.domain:0
to the file /etc/securettys to allow root to login.
[szabo_p@maths.su.oz.au]
==============================================
G4. How do I allow xdm sessions at C2 security?
If you get the error 'Cannot obtain database information on this terminal',
Follow this advice from the Digital support people and change the
files /etc/auth/system/ttys, /etc/auth/system/devassign and /etc/securettys
as follows:
In the following, replace host, host.sub.domain and n.n.n.n by the
hostname, full domain name and IP address of the host(s) you are trying to
connect from.
Add lines like the following to /etc/auth/system/ttys :
host\:0:t_devname=host\:0:t_xdisplay:t_login_timeout#0:chkent:
Add lines like the following to /etc/auth/system/devassign :
host\:0:v_devs=host\:0,host.sub.domain\:0,n.n.n.n\:0:v_type=xdisplay:chkent:
Add lines like the following to /etc/securettys :
host.sub.domain:0
host:0
[szabo_p@maths.su.oz.au]
==============================================
N1. Why doesn't FTP work to an XYZ system?
Digital UNIX uses the IP type-of-service option (TOS) by default. This
confuses some systems (reportedly Macintoshes). To turn off the
option for ftp, create a file /etc/iptos with the following entries:
ftp-control tcp 0x0
ftp-data tcp 0x0
Reboot the Alpha system.
==============================================
N2. How do you use a NFS-mounted /usr filesystem on Digital UNIX?
Jon Forrest (forrest@cs.Berkeley.EDU) has written a document that
describes how to do this. Look in
ftp://s2k-ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/personal/forrest/remote.mounting
[Jon Forrest, forrest@postgres.Berkeley.EDU]
==============================================
N3. Where can I get rstatd for Digital UNIX?
rstatd is in /usr/sbin/rpc.rstatd
==============================================
N4. How do I switch between the AUI and 10 Base-T Ethernet ports?
For the DEC n000 series of systems, the syntax is:
- Shutdown the system.
- At the ">>>" prompt, type:
set ethernet thick
or
set ethernet tenbt
- Reboot the system.
[Steve Imber, stevei@anduril.fsc.qut.edu.au]
For the AlphaStation and AlphaServer systems, the syntax is different and
depends on what Ethernet adapter you're using. For Digital EtherWorks
adapters, they'll automatically select between AUI and 10 Base-T but you
may have to use the console command:
set EWA0_MODE AUI
to have this happen. Use the keyword TWISTED-PAIR if that's what you've got.
==============================================
N5. Where can I get multicast software for Digital UNIX?
Information about software for multicast applications on Digital UNIX is
available from:
http://s2k-ftp.cs.berkeley.edu:8000/sequoia/conferencing
or ftp://s2k-ftp.CS.Berkeley.EDU/pub/sequoia/conferencing
[Fred Templin, templin@postgres.Berkeley.EDU]
Binaries of the MBone application suite are also available at
http://chocolate.pa.dec.com/mboneftp://chocolate.pa.dec.com/mbone
[Lance Berc, berc@src.dec.com]
==============================================
N6. What's wrong with xdr_long in the Digital UNIX XDR routines?
xdr_long is used for sending signed 32-bit values and cannot send
0xFFFFFFFF. xdr_ulong should be used instead. For 64-bit integer
values, use xdr_hyper. See the manual pages for more details.
[Curtis Keller, curtis@kinesix.com]
This is slightly misleading. xdr_long() can send -1, which in 32 bits
is 0xffffffff. xdr_long() does range checking, insuring that the top 33
bits of its 64-bit argument are all ones or all zeroes. If this is not
the case, then the signed long integer is beyond the range of
representation within a signed 32-bit value, and xdr_long() rightly
fails.
xdr_u_long() [note typo above!] insures that the top 32 bits of its
64-bit argument are all zero. If this is not the case, then the
unsigned long integer is beyond ... blah blah.
So, the upshot is: If you're using signed values, use xdr_long(), and
DON'T use unsigned constants like 0xffffffff to set variables. If
you're using unsigned values, use xdr_u_long(). In both cases, make
sure you're within range for 32-bits, if you want to interoperate with
32-bit machines using native data types.
[John Kohl,jtk@atria.com]
==============================================
N7. How do I configure the Berkeley Packet Filter and capture tcpdump traces?
1) Installing packet filter support
tcpdump relies on a kernel option that ordinarily isn't enabled. You can fix
this either by adding "options PACKETFILTER" to the system's configuration
file and rebuilding (via doconfig -c <FILE>) or by:
# doconfig
*** KERNEL CONFIGURATION AND BUILD PROCEDURE ***
Enter a name for the kernel configuration file. [ALINGO]: FILTER
You want to name the configuration file 'FILTER'
Is that correct? (y/n) [y]: y
*** KERNEL OPTION SELECTION ***
Selection Kernel Option
---------------------------------------------------------------
1 System V Devices
2 Logical Volume Manager (LVM)
3 Kernel Breakpoint Debugger (KDEBUG)
4 Packetfilter driver (PACKETFILTER)
5 STREAMS pckt module (PCKT)
6 Data Link Bridge (DLPI V2.0 Service Class 1)
7 X/Open Transport Interface (XTISO, TIMOD, TIRDWR)
8 File on File File System (FFM)
9 ISO 9660 Compact Disc File System (CDFS)
10 Audit Subsystem
11 Local Area Transport Support
12 All of the above
13 None of the above
---------------------------------------------------------------
Enter the selection number for each kernel option you want.
For example, 1 3 : 4
You selected the following kernel options:
Packetfilter driver (PACKETFILTER)
Is that correct? (y/n) [y]:
...
Rebuild and boot the new kernel.
2) Create the packetfilter devices:
# cd /dev
# ./MAKEDEV pfilt
MAKEDEV: special file(s) for pfilt:
pfilt0 pfilt1 pfilt2 pfilt3 pfilt4 pfilt5 pfilt6 ... pfilt63
3) Get a better tcpdump (pre V4.0 systems only)
Email me for a compressed, uuencoded file of a tcpdump that decodes NFS V3
and several other Sun RPC protocols (MOUNT, NIS, NLM, PORTMAP, and STATMON).
4) Enable local copy promiscuous mode
# pfconfig +p +c ln0 (or tu0 or whatever)
5) Run tcpdump
Please read the man pages before doing serious monitoring! To look at some
NFS traffic, try:
# tcpdump -s300 -c100 -Nt udp port 2049 [to look at all NFS traffic]
# tcpdump -s300 -c100 -Nt host foo [to look at all to/from foo]
-s300 "snaps" up the first 300 bytes of each message, generally enough to
get lower level headers, RPC, and enough NFS protocol to make sense of
the requests. -c100 says to capture 100 messages and exit. -N says to
suppress the domain name (e.g. .zk3.dec.com) in hostnames. -t says to
suppress printing timestamps. The result is usually still too long for
a 80 column screen, I keep a wide xterm lying around for most of my tcpdump
monitoring. The -m option splits some messages over multiple lines.
If you send people traces, I generally recommend that you capture data to
a binary file and send that. If the recipient needs to, he can run
tcpdump with extra filtering or -x (hex dump) to really dig into problems.
Do something like:
# tcpdump -w /usr/tmp/foo.dmp -s300 udp port 2049
tcpdump: listening on ln0
Using kernel BPF filter
^C
1040 packets
# compress foo.dmp
# uuencode foo.dmp.Z < foo.dmp.Z > foo.uu
Capturing to a file bypasses all the decoding code which can be very slow
and can generate its own IP traffic (e.g. resolving host names).
[Ric Werme, werme@zk3.dec.com]
==============================================
H1. Where can I get information about Alpha chips?
Call the DECchip Hotline
1-800-332-2717 (voice)
1-800-332-2515 (TTY)
8:30am - 5:30pm ET
[Jim Gettys, jg@crl.dec.com]
==============================================
H2. How can I get a parallel printer to work?
Some parallel printers are supported by Digital UNIX - see the Software
Product Description for a list. If you are unable to get a printer working,
the following tips may be helpful.
If you can do "date > /dev/lp0" successfully, then it should also work with
lpd. Trouble is, lprsetup adds an "rw" tag in /etc/printcap which lets the
data flow stall. You might try something like this:
# parallel connection
lp3|3|fleet|post:\
:lf=/usr/adm/lpderrs:\
:lp=/dev/lp0:\
:mx#0:\
:pl#66:\
:pw#80:\
:sd=/usr/spool/lp3:\
:sh:\
:xf=/usr/lbin/xf:
BTW: That was for an HP Laserjet before we used its JetDirect (=Ethernet)
card which supports lpd directly via TCP/IP. The entry for this usage is:
# ether connection
lp3|3|fleet|post:\
:lf=/var/adm/lpderrs:\
:lp=:\
:rm=fleet:\
:rp=fleet:\
:sd=/var/spool/lp3:\
:mx#0:\
:sh:
The printer has an IP address of its own and is called "fleet".
I have seen for the "rp" tag names like "raw" or "text" to distinguish
between postscript or text but the above entry works as well. Users that
need to print text use "unix2dos" as filter but we'd rather discourage that
and favour dot matrix printers for that purpose.
[Michael Sternberg, sternberg@physik.tu-chemnitz.de]
This configuration for JetDirect cards works only with revision 2 of these
cards, not with version 1. You can easily find out, if it is capable doing
remote printing: Revision 2 can be configured using telnet.
[Robert Schuhl, rschuhl@rsl000.rhein-main.de]
==============================================
H3. Where can I get a printcap entry for the XXX printer?
A collection of contributed printcap entries is in
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/ultrix-printcap Get a copy of the file for an
up-to-date list. Despite the name, these are good for Digital UNIX as well.
==============================================
H4. What are the pinouts of the MMJ jacks?
This describes the 6-pin modified modular jack (MMJ) used for serial ports
on various Digital hardware.
Digital carries four DB-to-MMJ adaptors. They are internally wired as follows
Rdy Out TX+ TX- RX- RX+ Rdy In
Adaptor Gender 1 2 3 4 5 6 Use with:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
H8575-A F 20 2 7 7 3 6&8 VTxxx terminal
H8571-C M 6 3 7 7 2 20 Digital printer
H8571-D M 6 3 7 7 2 20 Modem
H8571-E M 20 2 7 7 3 6&8 Female terminal
or LaserWriter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
RS-232 using DB-25 connectors:
DTE DCE
Terminal Modem
or computer
Pin Number Signal Name
2 TD Transmit Data -->
3 RD Receive Data <--
7 GND Ground ---
6 DSR Data Set Ready <--
8 DCD Data Carrier Detect <--
20 DTR Data Terminal Ready -->
==============================================
H5. Where can I get a disktab entry for the XXX disk?
newfs is smart enough to get the geometry of the disk from the drive,
although this feature is not documented for all versions. Use
newfs /dev/rrz#x /dev/rrz#x
to do this.
For most uses, you don't need a disktab entry on Digital UNIX. The disklabel
command can get the default partition table and geometry from the disk
driver and will put that in the label. When the label is present, newfs
doesn't need a disktab entry either.
A collection of contributed disktab entries is in
/pub/DEC/ultrix-disktabs on the usual archive machines. Get a copy of
the file for an up-to-date list. The disktab collection may also be
used on Digital UNIX, but not all entries have been tested on all
platforms.
==============================================
H6. How can I read/write MS-DOS floppy disks?
If you have a floppy disk drive on your ULTRIX or OSF/1 system, get
"mtools", a set of MS-DOS utilities for UNIX. The package can be
copied from ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/mtools-2.0.7 It works on
both DECstations and Alphas.
When you build mtools, you need to find out which device your floppy
is (/dev/rrz2c is common). Then you can clone the SPARC definitions,
or #define SPARC and make /dev/rfd0c a symlink to the one you need.
[Win Treese, treese@lcs.mit.edu]
==============================================
H7. How can I get disktab information for a new disk?
For disks that do not have entries in the /etc/disktab file, the following
disklabel command will query the disk itself for geometry information:
disklabel -rw /dev/rrzXc unknown
Where /dev/rrzXc is the device name of the disk.
[John Speno, speno@swarthmore.edu]
==============================================
M1. Where else is Digital UNIX discussed?
You can join the mailing list alpha-osf-managers@ornl.gov. Send a message
with
subscribe alpha-osf-managers
in the body to Majordomo@ornl.gov.
[Dave Sill, de5@ornl.gov]
Archives of alpha-osf-managers mailings are kept at:
http://www.ornl.gov/cts/archives/mailing-lists/http://www-archive.stanford.edu/lists/alpha-osf-managers/hyper/http://www-archive.stanford.edu/lists/alpha-osf-managers.htmlhttp://www-archive.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/fwais.pl
==============================================
M2. How do I add a new terminal definition?
Some applications on Digital UNIX use termcap; others use terminfo. tic(1)
compiles a termcap definition for terminfo. It is best to add a
new terminal definition both ways.
[Jeffrey Heller, jeffreyh@kpc.com]
==============================================
M3. How do I boot to single-user mode?
>>> boot -fl s
-fl specifies the flags to the booted image.
[Boris Yost, boris@msc.cornell.edu]
==============================================
M4. I heard that OSF is dropping OSF/1. What does that mean for Digital UNIX?
[The following is a "position statement" on this subject from Digital]
As part of its reorganization in March of 1994, the Open Software
Foundation announced transition plans for its existing technologies. It has
been well understood since then that the June 1994 release of OSF/1, the
OSF's operating system source code, would be the last. The possibility
remains open that OSF sponsors may choose to fund additional work in the
operating system area, but no projects are underway.
It is important to understand what OSF/1 is and has always been. It is not a
finished operating system but a set of operating system technology
components, from which vendors can pick and choose pieces of technology
that complement their product development strategies. Many UNIX system
vendors use elements of OSF/1 code -- Hewlett-Packard in HP-UX, IBM in
AIX, and many others, including Digital in Digital UNIX.
Digital uses components of OSF/1 technology, just as it integrates
technology from other suppliers with its own internal development. By
following this strategy of integrating needed components, Digital has been
able to produce the best implementation of the UNIX operating system in
the industry and to bring it to market quickly.
Since the initial releases, development of Digital's product has not been
dependent on OSF code. Digital's plans for the future development of
Digital UNIX are fully under Digital's control, and our plans for a fully
SPEC 1170 compliant version, UNIX clusters, and other leading
commercial enhancements are on course.
==============================================
M5. How can I read VMS BACKUP tapes on a UNIX machine?
There is a utility called vmsbackup to do this. Earlier URLs for this
software are now invalid - the following is part of a set of FreeBSD
ports - it may or may not work on other UNIX systems.
http://www.ee.freebsd.org/ports/emulators.html#vmsbackup-3.0
Vbackup is a commercial product which can read and write VMS-compatible
BACKUP savesets.
http://www.bbc.com/vbackup.htm
==============================================
M6. How do I contact Digital Customer Relations?
If you are having a problem dealing with Digital that you cannot satisfactorily
resolve through your local Digital office, please contact US Customer Relations
at:
Internet: response@mkots3.enet.dec.com
Phone: 800-DEC-INFO or 603-884-0915
FAX: 603-884-4692
Mail: US Customer Relations
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Drive, MKO2-2/D15
P.O. Box 9501
Merrimack, NH 03054-9501
Non-US customers may also use these contacts; information will be directed to
the appropriate corporate office.
Please include your name, organization, address, phone number and Internet
address in all correspondence.
==============================================
M7. How do I get an ESC (escape) character on a DEC keyboard?
1. Use F11 on the LK201 or LK401 (in most keyboard modes).
2. Use Ctrl-[ (left bracket)
3. Adjust the keyboard mapping in DECterm, if that's what you're using.
4. Use dxkeycaps to produce commands for xmodmap. See the manual pages
for details.
5. Get an LK421-AA keyboard, a North American keyboard designed for UNIX
systems. It has an ESC key, no caps lock, and the keypad has
been removed so the keyboard is smaller.
[Castor Fu, castor@drizzle.Stanford.EDU]
==============================================
M8. Where can I read announcements from Digital?
biz.digital.announce is Digital Equipment Corporation's newsgroup for
posting business information on products, services, significant
contracts, organizational announcements, cooperative marketing
agreements, alliances, seminars, promotions, etc.
The newsgroup will be organized so that you can use a "kill" file with
your newsreader to skip over (or ignore) classes of announcements that
are not of interest. All postings will be organized along the
following lines:
Subject: Press/... Digital Press Releases
Subject: Fact Sheet/... - Supporting Fact Sheets
Subject: Backgrounder/... - Supporting Editorial Backgrounders
Subject: Partner/... Press Releases from Digital's Partners
Subject: Seminar/... Seminars offered by Digital
Subject: Promotion/... Sales Promotions offered by Digital
Subject: Show/... Digital Tradeshow Activities
Subject: Training/... Digital Education & Training
The new biz.digital hierarchy is:
biz.digital.announce News and Announcements
biz.digital.articles Newsletters, Catalog, and Journal Articles
==============================================
M9. Where can I get performance information about Digital products?
World-Wide Web: http://www.digital.com/info/performance.html
FTP: ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/info/performance
==============================================
M10. How do I report security problems to Digital?
Security problems or questions should go to your normal Customer Support
Center.
==============================================
M11. How do I deal with the swap file filling up?
Remove the file /sbin/swapdefaults and reboot.
Digital UNIX has two paging modes, lazy and conservative. Conservative means
that paging space is allocated as memory is allocated, guaranteeing that there
is always somewhere to page to. This limits VM to the size of the paging
partitions, but makes for a very robust system. Lazy is more like what people
are used to with Unix - paging space is allocated when needed for paging out,
you can run more jobs, but you're in big trouble when everything fills up. By
default, Digital UNIX comes up in the conservative mode. Removing the
swapdefaults file changes the system to lazy mode.
[Lance Berc, berc@src.dec.com]
==============================================
M12. How do I deal with login problems?
Versions of Digital UNIX earlier than V3.0 use the /upgrade file to allow
access to non-root users. Generally, on these versions, the inability of
non-root users to log in is due to a problem with this file. Typically, this
file gets deleted by somebody who doesn't understand its purpose. To recover
from this problem, do one of the following:
1. cp -p /upgrade0 /upgrade
2. copy /upgrade from another pre-V3.0 Digitial UNIX system.
3. Obtain the O/S distribution media and extract the /upgrade0 file.
a. mount -r /dev/rz<x>c /mnt
b. cat /mnt/ALPHA/BASE/OSFBASE200 | uncompress | tar xvf - ./upgrade0
c. cp upgrade0 /upgrade
NOTE: the 200 in OSFBASE200 varies based on the O/S version.
Digital UNIX V3.0 uses the OSF-BASE and OSF-USR PAKs to determine the amount
of users allowed. A valid OSF-BASE PAK is required to activate the OSF-USR
PAKs. By default, the OSF-BASE PAK alone provides 2 concurrent user support
by activating an OSF-USR PAK which is automatically installed. If zero
non-root users can login, then you probably have not installed your OSF-BASE
PAK properly or it has expired. (Use the "lmf list" command to see the list
of installed PAKs. A PAK is good if its status is "active".) Install a valid
OSF-BASE PAK. If the problem still persists, then you likely do not have any
OSF-USR PAK. Since one is automatically installed for you, this means that
somebody inadvertantly deleted the PAK. You can recover this PAK by entering
the following:
/sbin/it.d/bin/twouser
Two concurrent users should be allowed to login at at this time.
If your problem is that only two users are allowed to login at the same time,
then you probably need a larger or additional OSF-USR PAKs. If you have
installed an "unlimited user" OSF-USR PAK but are seeing a restriction on the
number of users allowed to login, delete all OSF-USR PAKs other than the PAK
which provides for unlimited users.
[Dave Parker, djp@unx.dec.com]
==============================================
M13. How do I figure out what version of Digital UNIX I have?
The following table correlates the output of the "uname -a" command to
the "marketing name" for various Digital UNIX (DEC OSF/1) versions:
V2.0 240
V3.0 347
V3.0B 358.78
V3.2 214
V3.2A 17
V3.2B 214.61
V3.2C 148
V3.2D-1 41
V3.2D-2 41.64
V3.2F 69.73
V3.2G 62
V4.0 386
V4.0A 464
V4.0B 564
V4.0C 564.32
To determine the correct information for any version of Digital UNIX:
# strings /vmunix | grep '(Rev.' | cut -f1 -d';'
Or use (For DU v4.0 or higher):
# sizer -v | cut -f1 -d';'
[Dave Parker]
==============================================
M14. Is there a Digital UNIX web site?
Yes - http://www.unix.digital.com/
==============================================
M15. How do I free disk space for an update installation?
Some users have experienced problems recovering ample disk
space after an update installation has aborted due to insufficient
space. The following is an example of a typical problem encountered
during an update:
1) The update installation exits and indicates that additional space is
needed in a particular file system (root, /usr, and/or /var) to perform the
update.
2) The user deletes or moves files from the affected file system
and/or removes subsets.
3) The user initiates another update attempt.
4) The update installation aborts again because of lack of space, even
though the user believes that the space requested during the first
attempt has been recovered.
There may be several reasons for this problem:
o Some users are not following the proper method for removing system
files to recover disk space, as described below.
o A bug has been identified in the update installation disk
space calculation for AdvFS file systems. See "AdvFS Disk Space
Calculation Bug" below.
o Deletion of small files from an AdvFS file system may not
immediately free additional space. See "Additional AdvFS
Considerations" below.
The proper methods for freeing disk space are as follows:
1) Remove any non-critical optional subsets using 'setld -d'. Deleting
or moving individual system files without using the 'setld' command
will not yield the additional space needed to continue.
Refer to the appropriate appendix of the Installation Guide
containing the subset size information that corresponds to the
version of Digital UNIX that you have currently installed to help you
decide which subsets to remove.
2) Remove any non-critical user-added files which are not part of the
base or layered product inventory. Typical large space consumers
are left over core files and kernels that are no longer required.
3) For those who have previously performed Digital UNIX update
installations, left over obsolete system files, .PreUPD files,
and .PreMRG files can use significant amounts of file system space.
Use the 'updadmin' utility to first back-up then delete these
files. Refer to the installation guide for more information on using
updadmin.
4) For AdvFS filesystems, it is possible to save approximately
3MB in root by building a mandatory only kernel (the default) rather
than an interactive kernel (i.e. do not specify the "-i" flag to
installupdate). Note that you must specify the "-i" flag if there are
optional kernel selections that your system depends upon that cannot
be satisfied by a mandatory kernel. Section 5.20 of the Digital
UNIX 4.0 installation guide gives descriptions of each kernel option.
AdvFS Disk Space Calculation Bug
--------------------------------
There is currently a known problem with the update space
calculation procedure for AdvFS file systems. The bug may cause the
update installation to report an amount of 'additional space needed'
that is smaller than what is actually necessary. Therefore subsequent
update attempts may still request additional space even after the amount
originally requested has been freed. This bug will not corrupt your
existing system or prevent you from performing an update, but it may
cause you to have to free space and restart the update more than once.
This bug has been fixed for Digital UNIX 4.0B.
Additional AdvFS File System Considerations
-------------------------------------------
When removing small files (less than 8K) from an AdvFS file
system, additional free space may not be made available to the file
system immediately. After the total amount of space consumed by these
deleted files reaches a threshold value, all of the space is made
available in one large block. This explains why deletion of several
small files may not increase the available block count (as shown by
"df", for example). In this case the user must continue to delete
non-system user-added files until there is an adequate increase in the
available block count to allow the update installation to continue.
[Brad Musolff, bdm@unx.dec.com]
==============================================
M16. Why doesn't deleting individual system files free space for an update
installation?
Deleting files which are part of installed base or layered
product subsets will not produce additional free space because the
update installation takes into account that these old files will be
replaced by new versions. The disk space calculation determines how
much additional space is needed to replace an old version of a file
with its new version.
If the old version of a file is removed without removing the
entire subset in which it resides, the update installation will still
put the new version on the system. In this situation the full size
of the new file will be allocated instead of the difference between the
size of the original and new versions.
For example, if /genvmunix was 7MB and a new version of
/genvmunix was 8MB, update would need to reserve 1MB of free space
for the new version. If /genvmunix was deleted before the update,
the disk space calculation would then reserve the full 8MB for the
new file. So although 7MB was freed before the update, 7MB more
would be reserved during the update, which would result in no
difference in the amount of additional space needed to continue the
update.
[Brad Musolff]
==============================================
M17. How do I tune my system for use as a web server?
Elaborate instructions are given on a Web page titled "Digital UNIX Tuning
Parameters for Web Servers", available at
http://www.digital.com/info/internet/document/ias/tuning.html
This page is updated from time to time, as new information becomes
available.
==============================================
M18. Why does dxaccounts tells me that the password and group files are locked?
If a dxaccounts process exits ungracefully (e.g. if a kill -9 is used) then it
sometimes leaves a file in /etc called .AM_is_running. Deleting this file will
solve the problem.
[Ian Lloyd]
[End of FAQ]